Headlands Center for the Arts

Artist Statement

I am a Turkey-born, Bay Area- and Copenhagen-based interdisciplinary sound and performing artist whose work integrates body movement and expression into music performance. I have been developing a music-making practice that offers more inclusive ways for musical expression for diverse skill sets, backgrounds, and abilities, engaging with kinesthetic, immersive, and shared experiences. I perform with my custom-made instruments solo and in collaboration with dancers, engaging people in unexpected ways outside the traditional music conventions of playing and listening. Through the experience of the moving body, I investigate the relationship between the body and sound as well as hearing and listening.

While at Headlands

While at Headlands, I will continue to develop new listening experiences and movement-based musical instruments, exploring the body’s relationship to sound and articulating movement and listening practices for diverse hearing abilities. I will create new compositions in collaboration with Deaf dancers from the Bay Area. 

Selected Work

Doga Cavdir and Daiane Lopez da Silva, “Salt,” 2021; duo performance with Bodyharp at Salt Flats, Utah, as part of the Bodyharp Movement Series; sound composition, movement, custom wearable electronics, custom digital musical instrument; 1:10 sec. excerpt. Video: Weidong Yang.

Doga Cavdir, “Felt Sound,” 2020; 8-channel sound composition and performance, body movement, ASL signs, custom wearable electronics, custom digital musical instrument; 0:49 sec. excerpt. Video: Ge Wang.

Please, use headphones when listening. Some elements of the performance are lost due to low-frequency content.

Doga Cavdir, “In Vivo,” 2019; audio-visual installation; 8-channel sound, projection mapping, physical modeling, ancient, two-tone, bronze bell; 1:08 sec. excerpt. Video: Constantin Basica.